Labyrinth: Ch 1 What Lies Beneath
by Cosmina Inspira
Summary: The pilot of the first spin off series. I always wanted to know more about the mutates, and here they have their own story archs. Talon tries to help a difficult new arrival to the Labyrinth, a troubled and shady young man with a tragic past, and Talon's own past is paralleled.
1. Chapter 1

Labyrinth

Ch. 1: What Lies Beneath

By Cosmic Inspiration

Disclaimer: The Gargoyles animated series, including The Goliath Chronicles, is the property of the Walt Disney Company and Buena Vista Animation. No copyright infringement is intended here and not authorized by the copyholders, this author only writes for fun and entertainment for this animated series. Characters such as Radar is from the original TGC and characters Dr. Goldblum and Sharon are from the Gargoyles Saga and are the creations of the Gargoyles Saga staff and are used with creative acknowledgement. The actors' voices I hear for my characters have no association with this author nor the original show, and like how Greg Weisman heard voices for his characters in the show, I hear my characters with these actors' voices. All original characters are the property of the author Cosmic Inspiration.

Author's note: This story takes place sometime shortly after the events of We Live Again: 8. Collateral, and concurrently with 9. Remnants, 10. Face Your Fears, and 11. Wisdom and a bit after. The name for the character Radar is from TGC, and I feel there is more potential for the character than had been portrayed in the original TGC episode Runaways, one of the few decent TGC stories that could have been much more. Also, for the character of AJ, hear the voice of Ashton Kutcher.

You've heard of alligators in the sewers, right? Or perhaps giant mutant turtles and a giant rat with martial arts skills? How about upright walking big cats with bat wings that can shoot electricity from their hands?

Well, if not for urban myths and popular cartoons, young Aaron Joel Henderson, or just AJ, would never have believed it possible either.

But at the moment he could care less.

Almost a week ago he had been dropped here underground in a strange place called the Labyrinth, and would never have believed it to be real were he sober instead of dangerously high from drugs. The creatures that lived here were the strangest he had ever seen, even stranger than any psychedelic mirages that would dance in his vision as he got high from crack he would smoke or the heroin he would inject into his arm.

Several of them were talking cat people with wings and had names like Claw or Talon; and they said there had been this one nasty dude called Fang that was no longer with them.

From what AJ had heard, this Fang dude had to have been a lot cooler than the other cat people; it's too bad he's not around anymore, because he and AJ would have had a lot of fun together.

Along with the weird talking cat people were even weirder looking monsters with the minds of kids the cat people had called gargoyles, like those monsters people claimed to have sighted flying around in one part of the city or another.

Why they had names of places from California, he had no idea, which just made them all the weirder.

AJ just avoided them all most of the time, though he did find that tan chick with the white hair and wings to be pretty hot. Maybe she'd like to go out with him some time.

He soon learned he had not been the first, that several others found themselves in this strange place with even stranger creatures that had always claimed to mean them no harm and that everyone was safe here.

He stopped caring about such crap a long time ago, but as the week passed and he was denied his next high more and more he thought about his current situation, which he hated to do. It was always too painful to think, because it always meant he had to remember things he did not want to remember, especially from his past.

His mother had died of an overdose when he was five years old right in front of him, an image that became deeply ingrained into his mind.

Though they had very little in the way of possessions and living in a rundown apartment, he did have faint memories of good times and a committed mother's love.

However, she had become overwhelmed with ever deepening debts and the pressures of trying to support herself and her young child with a dead end job of only being an exotic dancer able to do lap dances at bars or even trying to make the easy tip at high end parties for the rich and famous.

He did not know what had happened at the time, but the last time he saw his mother alive she had taken her daily dose of pills that she always told him was a way to keep her calm and let her sleep. He just accepted it as a daily routine as he was put to bed, yet when he expected to see his mother awake like him the next morning he instead saw her still in bed, pale and unmoving.

Being only five years old at the time he did not understand what had happened to her, thinking she was just taking a long nap. It wasn't until a little later that same day, someone he only knew as one of his mom's 'business friends' dropped by the apartment to find her still in bed and a social worker coming for him and suddenly taking him from the only home he had ever known.

He was never told what had been done to his mother's body, only that it had been taken care of by 'proper authorities.'

Ever since then he had been put into the care of one foster home after another; one or two had been good, but the rest were just hellholes, like the last foster home he had run away from nearly four years ago.

AJ had learned early on that the world was a cruel place and the only person you could count on was yourself and no one else, and the only way to escape and survive this damning world was by petty crimes such as stealing the money he needed for food or his next high and let his mind escape and drift free from the hell that life is.

He knows that he's had to lie and cheat and steal to survive, but he never crossed the line to murder because he just never had the instinct for it.

But he always did have his wits and cunning, and it was all that allowed him to escape the vengeful grudges of the more dangerous criminals he would cross or being arrested by the police.

Out there it was learn to survive by your own wits or be killed, and trust no one.

People may say they care, but they don't. It's all just empty words to get your guard down.

Yet here, in this strange and somehow comfortable place, AJ was actually beginning to believe there may really be people who actually cared for him as he watched the more normal inhabitants of this Labyrinth help each other with even the most mediocre and trivial things.

A small community far beneath the streets he used to walk through coming together to look after each other for the common wellbeing of everyone, all lead by the black cat man, Talon.

Talon claimed he and the other three, Maggie, Sharon, and Claw, to be something called a 'mutate', a freak of nature who was once fully human like AJ until some guy called Servius or something or other played 'Name That Animal' with his DNA and it hop scotched him from normal man to a more than six and a half foot tall bat winged felinoid hybrid creature that shoots electricity. In every way, Talon's form resembled an African panther big cat with a large muzzle and golden cat eyes, high arched feet that made him walk on his toes, and a glossy jet black pelt that would allow him to blend into darkness. His muscle mass and power showed in every way, no doubt enough to rip AJ limp from limp in seconds flat, and his enormous black bat wings actually functioned enough to allow him to soar in the city sky above. AJ thought Talon didn't have much of a fashion sense because all Talon wore was some gay blue and green jump suit with green shoulder guards that looked like something from a cheesy comic book.

Aside from that, this place almost seemed it could pass for normal but blurred the line with its occasional weirdness.

While there was a large community room for everyone to share, families were given their own living spaces, and occasionally individuals had their own spaces or shared rooms with two to three other people; two kitchens always had more than enough food to feed an army of people and was tended by people who used to be respected chefs or had great experience and love for cooking, all headed by a matronly woman named Meredith; school rooms were even set aside for different levels of education, from kindergarten to high school seniors, and occasionally an elderly brownish tan gargoyle would be seen coming in to read to the younger children or teach them and the weird gargoyles to read; and then there was the 'Chapel' room where religious services of various faiths were held, from the majority of Christian faiths to minority faiths such as Wicca.

There was even the eccentric Dr. Daniel Goldblum who was said to be the 'head doctor' around here, but really lived in the city above, yet still provided medical treatment to the people of this Labyrinth community and the weird monsters who inhabited it.

Nothing and no one was put to waste down here, everyone was given a purpose or taught a purpose to have should they ever have a chance to return to the world above and another chance at a normal life.

A place once used for scientific research by a sci-fi sounding company called Cyberbiotics had been abandoned for reasons AJ did not know nor cared about and had become grungy and uninhabitable. Now the place had undergone a major face lift within just a few years, and even allowed the cat people a sense of home comfort in a place they called the 'Sanctuary.'

Yet despite at seeing all of this, AJ felt greatly out of place.

A young man of tall height and a wiry to moderate muscular build, he wore his long dark brown hair of dreadlocks in a tight pony tail, and his youthful chiseled face had the beginnings of a 5 o'clock shadow while he wore the typical clothing of a struggling street hood on skid row with bleach spotted denim jeans with rips in the knees, a stained white undershirt and leather jacket, and knee high leather boots.

He was a drug addict street punk who just wanted to escape life's greater hardships, but drugs such as marijuana and cocaine were banned with a dead seriousness down here. Almost as much as the most dangerous weapons, save for a mild tranquilizer gun to subdue would be violent aggressors in the Labyrinth and have them spend a few nights in the rarely used high tech prison cells.

AJ almost got a taste of the receiving end of that tranquilizer gun on his first night in this place as his latest drug induced high painfully wore off and he lashed out at the next person nearest to him as he began to become scared, angered and irritated.

Luckily, he was calmed by Talon and a cute blond girl named Lisa something, a weird sounding last name and very unpronounceable to AJ, while Doctor Goldblum, or the Doc as AJ has called him, injected a hypodermic needle into his arm with some weird stuff that seemed to suppress his drug addiction and cravings.

Lisa was far too healthy and well groomed to be a member of this 'homeless' community, with her long sun kissed blond hair, ice blue eyes, and girl next door looks with a dimpled smile, slender yet healthy feminine figure, and above average height, denim blue jeans, long sleeved red shirt and winter boots, and she claimed to be a volunteer for a non-profit organization that helped to run this Labyrinth and a member of something called PIT.

AJ didn't really care about all that, and the bigwig jackasses could call their businesses whatever they wanted, but no organization that he was aware of was ever really 'non-profit.'

But in some weird way he couldn't help but still like Lisa for her nearly contagious optimistic enthusiasm and determination to help and befriend everybody around her, even a street punk like him.

As AJ leaned against a nearby wall in the 'Community Room,' he watched as Lisa finished reading a story to a moderate sized group of five year olds who began clapping and yelling 'yaayy' as she read the ever iconic last words '. . . and they lived happily ever after', smiled and put the book down. He had to admit to himself it was an adorable sight, but one day soon those kids are going to have to learn just how cruel and unforgiving the real world is, that there was never any such thing as 'happily ever after,' and the only thing to count on was self reliance.

Also watching nearby was the panther man, Talon, who told the kids it was time for dinner and they were all herded away by one of the 'teachers' to begin their meal.

Lisa eyed AJ with a smile, she and Talon walked up to him in a friendly manner as the small children disappeared into the small crowd.

"So, did you enjoy the story, AJ?" Lisa bubbly asked.

AJ just shrugged as he said, "It was okay, but I'm not into that kid stuff. When those kids go Topside they'll have to grow up real quick 'cause that mush is just fillin' their little heads with useless crap. I learned a long time ago there's no such thing as 'happily ever after.'"

Talon and Lisa looked at each other with wide eyes at AJ's statement, Talon could only shake his head in pity for the boy while Lisa only looked at him with a determined glare as she said,

"Maybe fairy tales seem like crap to you, but they give those children hope and dreams of a better world. Didn't you see the smiles on their faces? To see such smiles on their faces is why I started volunteering for the Xanatos-Reynard Foundation to Aid the Homeless. Considering where they used to be, they already know the world can be a cruel place, but the stories I read them show it doesn't always have to be, that it can also have happiness and friendship."

"And being here in the Labyrinth," Talon said with his husky deep voice, "gives them the chance to be what they really are, a chance to just be kids and have fun, and not have to worry about whether or not they're going to get their next meal or even if they're going to survive to the next day. Here they can be just as normal as most other kids in the city above them."

AJ just seemed to scoff as he said, "I wouldn't exactly say that everything down here is 'normal,' considering some of the residents and the company they keep."

Talon gave AJ a hard look that most other residents of the Labyrinth had learned long ago to try to avoid if they wanted to keep their skins. If it had any effect on AJ, he did not show it but only gave an arrogant young smirk.

"You can say whatever you want about me and the Labyrinth, kid, it's a free country and you're free to express your opinion. But disrespect of any kind towards me or any of the residents has limited tolerance down here. Mind what you say to others, or that mouth of yours will get you into real trouble."

"Yeah, you say that I'm free to say whatever I want, Cat Man, but not whatever I want to _do_ , since being dropped in this dump all you've tried to do is tell me what I can and can't do and I'm sick of it. You say I'm free to be myself down here, but all you've done is tried to put me down." AJ's voice steadily became a little more heated as he spoke his rant to Talon, who just looked at him with strong disdain and frustration.

"If you don't like it here, you're free to leave. No one will stop you," he said with a low voice with an evident hardness of a suppressed yell.

"Maybe I'll do just that," AJ shot back, "But, I doubt you mean it. Once a cop, always a cop. I don't need this shit, I'm outta here."

AJ then just pushed past them and walked with hardness in his step to get lost in the small crowd of the community hall of the Labyrinth, Talon and Lisa watching after him in deep empathy.

"Give him time, he'll come around," Lisa said encouragingly.

"I don't know about that," Talon sighed, "But I certainly hope so. Problem is he's partly right, I've seen too many misguided police officers occasionally try to control some of the people they're supposed to protect, which always lead them to abusing their power of authority, too often because of the great stress experienced with the job. Deep down they mean well, but it just leads to them alienating those around them, including their families. And I admit, I don't like alienating anybody down here because they've been through it enough in their lives, even a difficult kid like that."

"He just needs to be shown that not everyone in the world is cruel and selfish. If anybody can do that, I know you can, Mr. Maza," Lisa said.

Talon could only give a small smile from his panther like muzzle as a feeling of flattery came over him. Maybe Lisa was right, but he had seen cases and kids like AJ too often before. Still he greatly admired her endless optimism.

"Please, Lisa, how many times do I have to ask you to call me Derek, or Talon down here. Mr. Maza is my father, and I know I'm going to be a father myself soon enough but I'm not really that much older than you. I'm twenty-nine and you're what, twenty-two, twenty-three?"

"Nineteen," Lisa said, "Though I've always looked very mature for my age."

The mutate leader and the homeless volunteer gave brief laughs as they walked together through the Community Room, Talon then became a little more stoic as he looked over to where AJ now stood leaning against a far wall to see Malibu, the clone of Brooklyn, trying to talk to AJ, who was just trying to uncomfortably avoid the light lime green colored clone.

"Maybe he's right in another way," he said with a heavy sight, "Maybe I am being too hard on him sometimes with all the restrictions."

"You're only trying to help him, you just want him to be safe like everybody else down here."

"True, but not at the expense of denying him some freedom, and if I can show him that without aggravating him somehow, then maybe I'd have a better chance of reasoning with him and reaching out to him."

Lisa gave a bright smile as she looked in the direction of AJ and Malibu as Talon told her, "In some ways, kid, you remind me of my big sister, she's still a cop and yet she's never lost her optimism for life, and your names are a little similar, too."

Lisa smiled wide at Talon's compliment.

On the other side of the Community Room, AJ had found himself nearly ambushed by the green creature with a huge snout called Malibu come up to him and started talking about new games that are being set up in a separate room from the Community Room that will become the 'Game Room.'

"Nice Mr. Xanatos buy old video games for Labyrinth from old arcade and mini golf place not open anymore. So we get to play with them now, and I help fix them. I like to fix broken things and things that not work well, it fun. Do you like to fix broken things, Mr. AJ?"

"Not really, schnozz boy, but I used to like to play vid games," AJ said with a lack of enthusiasm.

Malibu touched at his face as he said with a tone of indignity, "It beak, not schnozz."

"Whatever, green bean," AJ said dismissively, and then a wily smile formed on his handsome youthful face as neural endings in his brain lit up like neon lights.

"Say, green bean?" AJ said, "How would you like to help me with bringing a little more sophistication to the new Game Room? We can split 50-50, or maybe 70-30."

"My name Malibu," he said with an insulted tone, then with more decency, "Yes, I help, because being gargoyle and living in Labyrinth mean I and my brothers help people."

"Great," AJ said as he threw an arm around Malibu's shoulders, "Good to know you're on board, partner. But, before we get started, tell me about the tan white haired chick like you, is she available?"

"Her name Delilah, and yes, she available," Malibu said with a hint of what AJ thought sounded like jealousy, or maybe just an over protective thing.

Whatever, for now he felt excited at the prospect of bringing a little more fun into these people's lives, that they and he had been lacking. And getting to have some fun was not even the best part.

Having watched from across the room, Talon could not help but smile as he saw AJ walk off with Malibu as he said to Lisa, "Good to see he might finally be making some friends, especially with the gargoyles. But I still worry about his influence on them, they are still kids on a mental level and I don't want them to be taken advantage of because of their naïveté."

"Maybe he'll be a good influence on them, and vice versa," Lisa said with a hopeful smile.

"Maybe," Talon said skeptically, "But sometimes he reminds me a little too much of someone I used to work for, before my transformation. It's as if as long as he can trick others into getting what he wants he doesn't care how it will effect others, and screw all of the consequences."

"Yeah, he can be very misguided sometimes, so we need to make sure he doesn't cause any trouble."

"I'll have Al do just that."

Calling to one of the oldest residents of the Labyrinth, a grey bearded man simply called Al and wearing an outdated yet fashionable leather jacket he had traded for his old torn up one, Talon instructed him to keep a close watch on the new kid with Malibu and to tell his leader of any attempt at troublemaking.

"You got it, Boss Cat," Al complied determinedly, and then set off in the direction the young man and the green gargoyle disappeared to.


	2. Chapter 2

In what is to become the Labyrinth's new game room, the two mismatched companions of Malibu and street smart AJ tinkered around with an old air hockey machine that had to have been first constructed in the early 1990s.

"No, no," AJ told the light teal green gargoyle, "This wire should go here, and that one goes there." He pointed to where the wiring and connections should go as Malibu tried to follow his directions, his talons not making it easy for him to handle the inner electronic workings.

"How's that?" Malibu asked.

AJ looked over Malibu's work with a critical eye as though to be sure everything was where it should be with no margin for error. He then smiled at his new pale green friend and partner-in-crime as he patted Malibu hard on the back in a friendly gesture.

"Good work, green bean. Tomorrow night the real fun begins."

Malibu smiled wide from his beaked face as he wrapped a wiry muscular arm around his new human friend.

****Nine days later

The Game Room of the Labyrinth had become a big success for the families and their kids, as good or even surpassing the popular Chuck E. Cheese pizza and entertainment franchise. Though many of the restored games were from the 1980s to early 1990s and had fallen out of favor with current media tastes or had been succeeded by updated more modern versions, for the kids of the underground Labyrinth they were cutting edge. There were timeless icons such as Space Invaders, Pac-Man, or Street Fighter, and alongside those were other video games that had become obscured due to limited success, as well as fuse ball machines and two air hockey consoles.

Yet despite the fun it provided, suspicions and complaints soon started coming to light as days passed by with the disappearance of money from the games, machines freezing up, certain pieces of equipment only working at a certain time and in certain ways.

As all of these complaints came to Talon's attention, his first immediate suspect was AJ whom Al had said had spent a lot of time with Malibu in fixing and repairing the old machines. Indeed, Talon began to suspect the games were fixed in more ways than one.

However, from his experience as a former police officer he knew he needed more evidence than just strong suspicions from the Labyrinth dwellers if he were to catch AJ in the act and take disciplinary action.

As much as he hated the idea of entrapment, he was seeing little choice.

Of course, it didn't hurt to try asking first. But knowing AJ will only deny any involvement, he asked Malibu first.

"Yes, AJ help fix games that not work and make work. He say we make games work better and more fun. AJ help because he friend to Malibu."

Talon could only nod his head, knowing Malibu could not have known any better with AJ taking advantage of the simple minded gargoyle as he had feared.

Malibu could only bow his head in shame as he said, "I thought he help to fix fun games, not make trouble. I sorry, Master Talon. I thought AJ my friend."

"It's not your fault, Mal," Talon gently said as he placed a hand on Malibu's shoulder, "I know you've learned your lesson, and you can help fix the games again to get them working properly. If AJ is really your friend, he'll understand. Just tell me what else you may know, anything he may have told you about his plans for the games."

"Only AJ say he share money with me, but I gargoyle, and Hudson say gargoyles no need money."

"That's true, but do you know what he may have done with the money he took?"

"I not know, but AJ say because we fix games we should take a share of money put into games."

"He did, did he?"

Talon's golden eyes narrowed a bit. If his suspicions about AJ were correct, Talon knew he was going to have his hands full.

****Three days later

So far his scheme had worked, and save for a few complaints, no one suspected him of a thing. As long as people kept putting money into the arcade games and he chose his moments carefully to remove the extra cash they flounced, they still had some fun and he made a little extra money to pay off his screwed up debts. So everybody wins.

Part of AJ hated to take these people's hard earned money, because they had so little to begin with, but it was a screwed up world out there no matter where you were and you had to look out for Number 1 to survive.

Heading down a side tunnel he knew to be abandoned and never having been used, if it ever was at some point in its now miserable existence, with only a personal flashlight for seeing he headed deep into the musty damp tunnel until he came to a pile of inconspicuous broken concrete rocks that he knelt by and began digging into and carefully setting aside.

Beneath the debris were several tightly rolled up wads of American dollar bills, mostly ones and fives with a few tens and twenties.

Not only had AJ been taking loose change from the Labyrinth's Game Room machines to pass off as extra loose change for the kids and their families to use on the games, and thus taking their hard earned money, he had also taken money from the Labyrinth kitchens and donations for the Homeless Foundation in small amounts to avoid more suspicions. As long he only took what he needed at a time every couple of days and left just enough for what money the Labyrinth inhabitants needed, he need not worry about being caught.

AJ removed from his jean pocket a small wad of bills of his latest pay offs, and then set to accurately counting the total of his profits. Grinning wide, his hidden stash counted a little more than a couple thousand dollars and if he could keep up his scheme a bit longer he should have enough to pay off his screwed up debts in no time.

Although the Labyrinth was a far better place to live than any of the shitholes he remembered living in the past, AJ knew nothing good came without a price and he was getting his. He also may not crave the intense agonizing desire for harmful drugs anymore, thanks to that weird serum the Doc gave him not long after AJ arrived, but the street youth still owed a great amount of money to his loaners.

Though he still had a long way to go, he plans to pay back Baby Face and his thugs everything of what he owes.

Then he will go on the straight and narrow.

Well, maybe not that narrow because he still knew he will need his clever trickster wits to get by, but AJ will think about that after he's acquired enough money.

Adding his latest profit to his hidden stash, AJ then carefully set the rocks back in place to bury his treasure in an inconspicuous way but arranged in a way to mark the spot only he would know.

As he rose from his spot and turned on his flashlight again to find his way back, the beam fell upon an imposing figure to make AJ give a low startled yelp.

The red orange fur was amazingly vibrant against the shadowed black and dark grey background of the musty decaying tunnel, black stripes were like pulled back shadows to reveal the figure's emergence from darkness, even his black bat wings were like tangible living velvet shadows in the dark, and his cat like eyes glowed a nearly supernatural golden green as they reflected against the illuminated beam that encompassed him in AJ's torch.

Claw stood imposingly with his brawny arms crossed tightly over his large powerful chest as he stared hard at AJ with a look of displeasure upon his tiger like face, but the street youth just momentarily smirked. It never ceased to amazed AJ how ridiculous the tiger like mutate appeared with only wearing nothing more than tight Speedo briefs; but now he could not help but chuckle a bit at having not noticed he had been followed. Claw may have been larger and stronger looking than Talon as well as a mute, but he also still had feline stealth.

"So how long have you been there, tiger boy?" AJ said snippily.

Being a mute Claw did not answer, but with a furrowed brow and a dead serious expression his golden eyes spoke volumes that he had been there long enough to reason what AJ had been up to.

"Actually, I'm glad you're here," AJ said as if nothing was amiss, "I thought I'd gotten lost again, it's a real maze down here, ya know."

Claw's eyes narrowed, telling AJ he was not buying the innocent act so he can just drop it. The great tiger like mutate then pointed hard at the buried stash of stolen money beneath the pile of rocks.

Briefly glancing at his hidden stash, AJ said in an arrogant but irritated tone, "Sorry, Tigger, if you're lookin' for your cut of the money you're gonna have to earn it, 'cause I worked my ass off to get this dough."

Claw may have been a mute, but he was still able to growl deeply like the big cat he was genetically modeled after, and just kept pointing at the stolen money, not moving to show AJ he meant business.

Rolling his eyes, AJ then groaned, "Fine, fine. A hundred bucks for you to keep this place a secret, and I know you're good at keepin' secrets 'cause you never say a word anyway, right, Tigger?"

Claw just kept pointing at AJ's buried stash, clearly not amused. The brown haired street tough set to digging it all up and only took out a few rolled up twenties as bribery for Claw, but the tall burly mutate came closer to AJ to stand over him with large fists on his hips and then pointed at all of the stolen money in the pile, making AJ only roll his eyes.

"If you're wantin' more, I'm sure we can arrange a payment schedule." AJ slowly stood up with the seeming intention of giving the hundred dollars to Claw, but he suddenly threw his flashlight at Claw so hard the tiger mutate only took a split second to react.

He shot out a moderate lightning bolt of electricity that turned the flashlight into a sparking piece of useless slag before it even hit the ground, AJ seizing the distraction long enough to make a run for it down the musty damp tunnel, but he barely got a few yards away as he slipped and slid on the wet muck covered ground.

Claw then shot another bolt at the retreating AJ, but it was just enough to stun the street punk like a powerful police tazer gun. AJ gave a yell of pain and surprise as he collapsed to the ground, only half conscious. Claw immediately regretted having to hurt the defenseless young man, gentle soul that he is, but Claw understood how necessary it was sometimes to use his powers in such a way.

He then gathered up the rest of the stolen money, even the hundred or so AJ tried to bribe him with having dropped all the lose bills as he collapsed, and then gingerly gathered the groggy AJ into a firefighter's hold and soon set to returning to the Labyrinth proper.


	3. Chapter 3

Talon had just finished counting the missing money, $2,168 total, and handed it all to a Labyrinth resident named George Tanner, who was becoming the subterranean community's unofficial accountant and bookkeeper from years of experience as a city banker before he had lost his job.

As George left to redeposit the returned finances into the foundation's accounts, Talon turned to look at an arrested AJ sitting angrily between Claw and a dusky skinned muscular bald human man called Thug, acting as the young street tough's guards to prevent any attempt of escape. The panther mutate leader had a look of disappointment and hot anger in his golden yellow eyes as he looked at AJ with tightly crossed arms, but the young former drug addict only looked at all of his captors with cold malice and insolence. The others in the room, Maggie, Malibu, and Al could only look at AJ with sad pity and hurt disappointment.

Glaring at AJ with an authoritative posture, Talon finally spoke in a hard controlled voice after a long tense silence, "Alright, young man, you have one chance to tell me what you were doing with the money and what your plans were for it."

"Go screw yourself, panther man," AJ remarked with a snare, making several people in the room jump a bit, but Talon remained still as his eyes narrowed sharply.

"Well?" he growled.

AJ just remained quiet, though he did not try to hide an insolent rebellious smirk that seemed to strike a cord with Talon.

"There's more than enough evidence against you, AJ, to show you were behind the larceny and money laundering," Talon stated with dead seriousness, "It's enough to get you a few nights in the detention cells, so I suggest you just confess and you'll only receive a fair warning and a week's parole. Malibu has already volunteered for the job, though I think Thug is more qualified."

AJ just gave a small snort as he began to say, "Get real, panther man, I've gone through worse than that little slap on the wrist. It's not like I can't handle a few days in jail, so go ahead and throw me into the damn clink like you're goin' to anyway. So do your worse, there's nothin' you can do that'll scare me."

Talon's dark felinoid face seemed to give a deep frown as he said, "Fine, then, community service it is. And this isn't to scare you, AJ, I'm trying to teach you respect and responsibility. You're not on the streets anymore and I won't have you throw your life away because you've been through a lot of crap in life, there are a lot of people in the Labyrinth that understand that better than I do, and have been through a lot worse, but they still are able to make a better life for themselves now. A hundred hours of helping serve food in the kitchens, and cleaning the public bathrooms and the gargoyles' shed sleep gravel. You start tomorrow bright and early, so get plenty of sleep."

Before AJ was allowed to protest, Claw and Thug escorted the street tough to his living quarters as he gave Talon a hard dirty look until he and the burly males were gone from the room.

Talon then turned to his expectant wife, known to everyone in the Labyrinth simply as Maggie the Cat, who was a statuesque lioness female mutate with golden brown fur and large brown bat wings, long light brownish blond wavy hair that came down to her muscular legs, and was showing a slight bulge in her tummy as early signs of her pregnancy. He put his arm around her as they watched their latest and most difficult charge leave with his escorts, while Al went to take care of other business and Malibu looked at them with disappointment and confusion.

"Do you think I was too hard on him?" he asked Maggie.

"No, Honey, you did what you could," Maggie gently answered her husband, "He's a troubled kid and we all just want him have a good life without drugs and petty robbing, but he has to be the one to make that choice, we can't force it on him. Hopefully he'll see that in time."

"I want help AJ," Malibu spoke up, "How I help AJ?"

Talon looked at the young gargoyle with a raised eyebrow for a moment, then said with proper pronunciation of each word, "How do you want to be able to help AJ?"

Malibu nodded contritely.

With a small smile, Talon told Malibu, "If you still consider him your friend, Malibu, then do just that, be his friend. He definitely needs one. Spend time with him, talk with him and get to know him, and encourage him to spend time with Delilah and your brothers. Maybe he'll learn that the best way to have a friend is to be a friend."

"I do that, Master Talon," Malibu said with a smile from his large beak and thumbs up, "I *will* do that, and AJ will have me as friend."

He left the room with proudness in his step, Talon and Maggie watched him leave with hopeful smiles.

"It sometimes amazes me how much he and his brothers have matured in the last few years," Maggie said, "Before we know it, they'll be wanting to look for gargoyle girls and starting to date. They may even be ready for the Breeding Season in a few years that Hudson told us about and we'll have baby gargoyles down here, and not just mutates."

She patted and rubbed at her bulge for a moment, lost in thoughts of bittersweet bliss and a bit of sadness. Talon said nothing as he just held her close, thoughts of things that might have been and what they really were passed through his mind.

****Denny's, 1995

Derek Maza sat at his table alone as he awaited his early morning meal, having gotten off his night shift at the 23rd precinct 10 minutes ago. He had barely paid attention as a really cute waitress with _Nichole_ on her name tag had taken his order, because his mind was deeply preoccupied with a thrilling job opportunity he had been offered earlier that night by the multi-billionaire David Xanatos.

After having saved himself, his sister Elisa, and the police helicopter he was piloting as they pursued the same billionaire in his expensive palatial black limousine to the Diamond Exchange building, David Xanatos expressed how impressed he was with how Derek piloted the copter with a newly destroyed rear rotor from a bomb shot by the former TV star turned criminal, Jackal.

Impressed enough to even offer Derek a new job as his personal pilot and bodyguard; an offer that sounded like a once in a life time opportunity. However, Elisa took it as personal stating he was just using her younger brother to annoy her, obviously a statement made by her personal bias animosity to Xanatos, which Derek didn't understand.

He was a good pilot, he knew it and she should have known it too, he had a few framed awards and certificates from the city police commissioner and other city officials to honor his flying accomplishments to prove it. But if that was not enough, he also had a private pilot's license to fly private jets and personal airplanes, but most importantly he had his talent and his skills as a pilot. He even took great pride in the fact that he continued to follow the ever changing and evolving dynamic world of aviation, so as to keep his piloting skills honed and sharp.

He had always wanted to be a pilot, ever since he was a kid and built model airplanes with his dad and he talked about one day joining the Air Force and the Blue Angels when he grew up. But somehow, in a weird twist of fate his father, Peter Maza, had convinced his only son to go into the 'family business' and 'carry on tradition' and be a cop like him and his oldest sister, Elisa. Really weird, as Derek knew his own father had defied his own father back in Arizona, and they had not talked to each other for years until a family reunion when Peter came home from New York City with a wife and three kids to see a traditional Hopi coming of age ceremony.

Yes, Derek only did so to make his family happy and proud of him, and he actually wanted to make a difference in the world and help people, be a hero like his dad. But in the first days of his police career, it all felt too limited, like he was meant for something different, and being a police officer was not what he wanted to do with his life, despite being able to fly a police helicopter.

But something far more important occupied Derek's thoughts as he saw Nichole finally bring his sausage and omelet breakfast. It was the importance of second chances, of redemption and acceptance of one's fellow man.

Derek knew next to nothing of the business world and its inner workings, but he understood criminal activity and law enforcement. Yes, Xanatos had been convicted of larceny from Cyberbiotics, but it was very clear to Derek that the wealthy businessman was trying to do some good after having spent some time in jail for his crimes, such as his donation of the priceless jewel, the Eye of Odin, to the Museum of Modern Art a few weeks ago. Although he has met his share of harden criminals plenty of times who return to jail time and again, what being a police officer meant was not just about authority in law and order, it was also about justice, compassion and second chances.

Many criminals did not always comment crimes and did what they did out of spite or hate, many times they were just victims of circumstance, lost souls that could not find any other way to survive or had lost the option of a better more law abiding choice.

Tragically, in time they would fall further into despair, far from the accepted norms of conventional society and deeper into lawlessness, whether by desperation for self preservation, psychological trauma, or the taste and taint of crime was so addictive they wanted more of it like a drug and they knew nothing else.

But whatever business rivalry Xanatos had with Cyberbiotics, the dapper businessman told Derek he had paid his debt to society and was only trying to make up for it now, and Elisa should know better than anyone that second chances are worth giving to anyone who is looking for redemption.

After the events of last night, he took some quick time off from the precinct to talk to his mother, Diane Maza, about the job opportunity from David Xanatos, because the more he thought about it the more excited about it he became. Derek knew he was a good cop and his dad and Elisa will want him to stay on the force, but it wasn't what he wanted to do with his life. He wanted to expand his horizons, see the world, and see what else he could do, and what Xanatos offered was indeed a rare opportunity.

His choice was made all the more clear after he talked with his mom, telling him he should go for it if it was what he wanted and it was his life to choose what to do with it and not up to Elisa or his dad.

As Nichole brought his breakfast, he gave the cute brunette and tan skinned waitress his most charming smile as he told her about the new job opportunity he was taking, asking her if she would like to have coffee with him soon to celebrate. She gave him her congratulations with a wide and pretty toothy smile as she told Derek her next day off was Friday. She gave Derek her number with his receipt after he left to return to the precinct to tell Elisa his choice.

Though it greatly shocked Elisa, indeed the look on her face had been priceless, he made it clear to her that it was his life and his choice, not hers.

This was to be the beginning of his new life. A new job, and a date with a new girl, and even if he only had his mother's support, Derek knew these to be the signs of something good.

Finally, he can choose to do what he wanted to do with his life.

****Present, Labyrinth community kitchen, the next day

AJ was in Hell, he was sure of it and he couldn't think of any other term for his situation. Hell was said to be far below ground, right? And it always told of the worst kind of punishments being about doing gruesome things you didn't really want to do, right? Well, that was what he was in now, Hell, and the only irony about it was that AJ knew he was still alive when it was also said you had to be dead to go to Hell.

What he wouldn't give to really be dead right now.

He had been awoken at 6:30 am that morning by Malibu right before he turned into a statue before AJ's very eyes, alongside the other gargoyles, and then was escorted by Thug to the kitchen for serving breakfast to the rest of the Labyrinth residents, after a quick breakfast of his own.

From the second he started, AJ did nothing but complain as he served out buttered toast, sausage, bacon, oatmeal, and other assorted breakfast foods to the Labyrinth residents, the bitchy old hag of the kitchen, Meredith, constantly telling him to mind his manners, hush up and do his job. With boiling resentment, AJ served whatever food the whiney and begging idiots asked for as the line moved glacier-slow to AJ. Frequently, when someone would say 'good morning' to him, he just brushed them off with saying to go screw themselves, which always earned him a slap in the back of the head and a look of disapproval from the old crone.

Around 9:30am the serving of breakfast to the day time Labyrinth residents was finally over, but AJ knew his work was far from over. Meredith nagged him to take out the trash and wash the dishes and get them ready for the lunch rush, before giving him a broom and dustpan to sweep with, the same ones to use for the gargoyles' sleep gravel when they awoke later that evening.

Being sentenced to community service by that control freak bastard, Talon, AJ had to do the dishes by himself, which took an hour and a half, and he came away from it with wet clothes and pruned fingers before Meredith showed him he could have used rubber dish gloves to which he gave a frustrated groan of 'Now she tells me.'

He was only given a half hour break for lunch which seemed to flash by in a few seconds to AJ as the next thing he knew he had been given a toilet brush and bucket to clean the more public Labyrinth bathrooms by Al the wino and suck-up flunky to Talon. Thug, Talon's other human flunky, supervised AJ with a blank unreadable expression, seemingly indifferent to AJ's plight as the street youth struggled with tolerating the smell of bleach and lemon scented cleaner while he scrubbed out the multiple toilets, sinks, scattered shower stalls, and mopped the floors. The whole time AJ worked, he mumbled his usual obscenities about his situation and how Talon and the other freaks and all the hobos could do repulsive things to their private areas.

Every now and then he glanced angrily and grudgingly at Thug, yet something about the dusky skinned, bald, and burly man set AJ a bit on edge with his strong and silent demeanor behind a stoic countenance that made AJ have a resentful respect for him. Even when AJ threw an insult in Thug's direction, he just remained silent and said little or nothing as he watched AJ like a hawk. Part of AJ wondered about what in Thug's past made him wind up down here in this underground crap pile; but right now he did not want to know nor did he care.

As he finally came to the end of mopping the tile floor of the last bathroom, the filthy mop made a sploosh a bit harder than necessary as AJ placed it into the muddied bucket water and wiped his sweaty forehead as he gave a deep gasped of breath with exhaustion.

"Finally," he groaned, "I can get outta this lame ass shithole and be done with this crap."

"Not quite," Thug informed him, AJ turned to give him a fuming look, "You have one last chore to do for the day, cleaning the gargoyles' sleep gravel."

AJ grumbled more profanities as he took the broom and dustpan from Thug, the dusky skinned man gave him a stoic but hard warning look as he said,

"And I suggest watching your language, we have kids living down here and there's enough bad influences goin' around."

AJ just gave Thug a look filled with daggers, wishing at that moment the earth would open up and swallow the man and everything else in this underground freak show to the deepest pits of hell, even if the imagined chasm took him with it. At least he'd be free of his oppressive and humiliating situation of having to do slave work for a seven foot bat cat freak of nature.


	4. Chapter 4

Aside from clocks sporadically placed on walls around sections of the Labyrinth and its various dwellings, AJ did not know how anyone down here knew when it was night or day, and like everything else he did not really care. But apparently, Malibu and the other gargoyles kept good time down here despite being out of the Sunlight to turn to stone, which he had always heard gargoyles had to be in the direct light of.

Whatever, AJ just leaned against the broom handle as he waited for the gargoyle statues to come back to life with a slunk in his posture, barely taking notice of the gathering small crowd of mostly young children and some adults who always daily watched in wonder at the approaching spectacle.

In an area known as the Labyrinth Crossroads, at each large open passage that lead to other yet undesired or as yet unexplored parts of the ever crisscrossing tunnels of an endless underworld maze, a gargoyle statue stood in a fearsome pose in order to deter away would be intruders, a tradition long held for millennia by their proud race. However to AJ, had he not known better, they simply looked like weird statues that he usually ignored. Now as he waited for whatever was supposed to happen, his gaze kept wandering over to the slate grey stone statue of the hot female gargoyle Malibu had called Delilah. He had to admit even as solid stone she was still really hot, but she will always be way hotter when alive.

Moments passed like an eternity to AJ, but then something really weird and spectacular began to happen and his eyes widened in astonishment. Cracks and chips began to form on the bodies of the gargoyle statues as a sound of breaking grinding stone signaled a most exciting display. The gargoyles burst forth from their stone shells in a chorus of loud roars rumbling from the depths of their throats, four sets of eyes glowed deep crimson and one pair a heavenly white as muscles flexed away hard stiffness to renew the spark of life to once more flesh and blood bodies. AJ stared at Delilah like a wide eyed moonstruck child as he watched the hypnotic way she flexed her wings and arms, being entranced by the interesting way it affected the movement of her buxom chest, barely aware of the applause by the excited young children.

While AJ's attention was fixed on Delilah, the image of her awakening forever ingrained into his memories, he hardly noticed Malibu come up to him happily after greeting the other gargoyles and the children that loved to watch the nightly awakening of their unusual nocturnal guardians.

"Hi, AJ," Malibu greeted enthusiastically with a smile on his prominent beak.

"Hunh? Oh, hi, green bean," AJ said with an obvious lack of enthusiasm as he shook himself out of his open mouthed gawking at Delilah.

"I happy to see you," Malibu said, "We see movie instead of learn reading tonight because it Saturday, and Talon say it a day to do fun things. You watch movie with me and brothers and other kids? It called 'Labyrinth' and I thought it about us, but Hudson say it a kid movie about strange way humans picture Third Race. I only see fairy or goblin of bad Unseelie Court from Third Race before but I know it be fun. Want watch with us, friend AJ?"

"Can't, green bean," AJ brooded, "I have to clean up your gravel crap as part of my damn 'community service', then I just want to go to bed and hope I die."

AJ then gave Malibu a hot narrow eyed look that made the light green gargoyle's wings shiver and his tail twitch uncomfortably.

"Why'd you sell me out?" AJ quietly snared, "I thought we were partners, I was gonna share the take with you."

"I gargoyle," Malibu said with heated defense, "Gargoyles protect, not steal. Stealing wrong and I not steal from ones I supposed to protect. I not be your stealing partner, I be your friend."

"Friends don't sell each other out."

"You do bad thing, and that not good. You not have to do bad thing again and I be your friend, my brothers and sister be friends to AJ, too."

AJ just gave a scoff, "You're wastin' your time, greenie, I don't belong in this underground freak show. But I did find that breaking out of stone show pretty bitchin'. Now I know what the echoin' shouts and roars are all about."

Malibu was taken aback for a moment as he said, "We not mean to scare when we wake up from stone sleep, but why you say bad words and it a bad thing?"

"I mean it was really awesome, one of the coolest things I've seen in my life."

Malibu gave a small smile as he said, "Thank you, AJ, why not say it cool and not use bad words? I not like bad words."

"Whatever," AJ huffed, "You go watch that stupid movie 'cause there's no way I'm gonna be done when it starts. Just somethin' else that shows how much it sucks down here."

Malibu's red eyes narrowed a bit with hurt anger as he said with a controlled hurt voice, "Living in Labyrinth good, it home. People with no home up there come to Labyrinth to be home and my clan protect people from bad things. It be your home, too. Watch movie with name like our home with us and see it good."

AJ just gave the green gargoyle a shake of his head and brush off wave of his hand as Malibu walked away, then began sweeping the scattered stone shell remains.

As the first pile was formed, a female voice said from behind him, "You shouldn't treat him so badly, he's only trying to be nice to you, AJ, we all are."

He turned to find the cute blond Lisa standing behind him, wearing her jeans and comfortable winter boots and a dark brown and fashionable raincoat, and a look of pity on her smooth skinned and oval shaped face. He tried to assume a charming and confident posture, yet it came off a bit arrogant as he said,

"Well, I know you and the green bean want to pal around with me 'cause I'm such a fun guy, but it's been my experience that it's always because people wanted something from me and I end up getting the short end of the stick."

"I'm sorry you feel that way," Lisa said with a sympathetic tone, "But all we want from you is friendship, nothing else. Without friends to care about you, life can be pretty crappy anyway, and if you can't trust your friends then who can you trust?"

"Nobody," AJ said bluntly, "I learned that lesson the hard way a long time ago. Cheating and stealing is the only way to get ahead if I was to survive."

"It doesn't have to be. And you said you've only _survived_ but you haven't really _lived_ , have you? There's a difference. You don't just have to survive anymore, AJ, you can live a good life down here. Let me, Talon, Malibu and the others help you live again, have some real meaning again and find some happiness. I know you're a good person somewhere deep down, and you must like it here in a way, because I'm sure you'd have run away a long time ago."

AJ just gave her a reserved yet brooding look as she said she will see him later and walked to the Community Room to join in viewing the cult classic kids' movie.

From another corner of the Labyrinth Crossroads, Talon watched with reserved stoic contemplation as he saw AJ sweep the gravel with an obvious begrudging hardness. The panther mutate leader momentarily considered lightening the former street urchin's sentence but immediately dismissed the thought because then AJ would not learn anything if Talon went too easy on him. Much of this spoke volumes to him from his law enforcement experience and career, a career he left behind and will never have again.

He had left behind a few good friends on the force, including his commanding officer and a mentor in Captain Chavez, whom he had only last spoken to on the phone during the Phoenix Rising crisis. Elisa had told him that she had also just been introduced to the Manhattan Clan above, but had respected her brother's wishes to not tell his former captain about the Labyrinth just yet.

Even before his mutation, Talon had always been something of a very private person. Some things were best left unsaid unless a proper time came, though secrets tended to be revealed too soon.

****Manhattan, 1995

The last several months in Derek's new career had shown promise and he actually began to feel he was going places; despite that first night of excitement with Jackal's and Hyena's attempted assassination of Mr. Xanatos and the revelation of the gargoyles, working for the multi-billionaire had quite a few perks such as seeing the testing and research into new technologies for non-lethal weapons development, space travel, robotics, and genetic engineering for medical research, as well as being a test pilot for prototype air craft.

Along with his budding new career and life style, he was dating and had become crazy about Nichole, the pretty, smart, and spunky waitress from Denny's who wanted to pursue a career in engineering and shared to a strong point Derek's interest in aviation.

Then all of a sudden, in one night it all seemed to come crashing down harder than a ton of bricks.

Maybe it all began with Elisa trying to convince him to leave his new job not 24 hours after accepting, and they got right into an argument after having captured Mr. Xanatos's would be assassins and meeting the unbelievable creatures called Gargoyles. At the time Derek was completely certain his big sister was just trying to control his life and would not allow him to live it the way he wanted.

Even in her off hours she had to be the cop instead of just being a sister.

Members of his family have always been over protective of each other, especially his parents with his father being a cop and his mother a school teacher, but also strongly because of their mixed heritage backgrounds; Diane Maza, an African American woman of Nigerian descent, possibly a descendent of runaway slaves from the South; and Peter Maza, the son of a Southwestern Native American, an honored Hopi medicine man and storyteller, a member of the Coyote Clan.

But that aside, while Derek was growing up his father would push hard for his only son to take up his father's legacy of going into law enforcement, possibly near to the point of leaving his son with little choice of anything else to do with his life, while his mother was more open and encouraging yet subtle in hoping one of her children might become a teacher like her. It was because of this more open and patient understanding from Diane Maza that Derek came to be closer to his mother than his father, often looking to her for advice and wisdom when he felt conflicted, knowing that all as any mother would want was for her children to be happy and have the confidence to make their own choices.

This was a strong reason why he chose to leave the force and go work for David Xanatos; yes the man had a white collar criminal record now but the multi-billionaire had admitted to his mistakes.

After that first attempt on Xanatos's life by the Terror Twins, as Derek later learned Elisa had come to call them, Derek had wondered about the strange creatures that had attacked them and allowed him to pilot Xanatos's personal helicopter to safety. His new boss soon showed him a recording of fantastic creatures called gargoyles and told Derek about the events of the night of the alleged 'exploding generator' not long after the completion of his newly acquired Scottish castle.

Xanatos had not known the gargoyle sculptures would actually come to life, as local folklore in the Wyvern Highlands said the castle was haunted, but Xanatos had dismissed it as local superstition. Quickly realizing the thousand year old Gothic statues were actually living creatures, he tried to help them adjust to their new surroundings but the clan had rejected his help as he made a few mistakes that greatly offended them and they left the castle for a new unknown lair. Though they had left the castle in Xanatos's possession, the gargoyles still kept an oath of protecting, and knew that they still owed an oath of honor to Xanatos for freeing them from an ancient 'sleep spell' and knew that by saving his life, in turn he will continue to protect their former home should they ever forgive him and chose to return.

It was all hard to believe, even as Xanatos showed him the evidence right in front of him, and Derek knew a forgery when he saw one even though he had been a police pilot instead of a forensic scientist.

What had been more surprising and even hurtful, was that his own sister Elisa knew of them and had even befriended them. Why they chose to trust his sister more than the man who helped them first did confuse Derek, but this was the least of his questions. Why his own sister did not tell him about them before might be a bit understandable, but he and Elisa were both on the force and she should have known she could have trusted her own brother to keep a secret as unbelievable as this. Of course he did not always tell his sister all of his secrets either.

But it also still proved that she did not trust her own brother enough to make his own decisions.

As their argument escalated into a near shouting match as Derek yelled at Elisa to butt out of his life at her incessant belief Derek's new boss was just using him, the big pale purple gargoyle appropriately called Goliath yelled for them to be quiet and stopped the human siblings' fighting. He pointed out how lucky they were to have each other in the first place and nothing was more important than family before walking away and being joined by the rest of his gargoyle comrades.

For a short while he and Elisa were quiet, contemplating what Goliath had just said and Derek deep down knew that weird giant monster was right. Elisa then told him, calmly of course, she admitted to being wrong about a lot of things and he didn't have to be a cop and did need to lead his own life, reassuring Derek's trust in her and feeling a sense of pride at Elisa finally showing a sense of faith in her younger brother.

Yet she was still irritatingly insistent about being right about Mr. Xanatos as she handed him a tape player and left the choice of listing to what it said up to him.

For a long while he just left it to gather dust in his new apartment's closet and moved on with his promising new career, and didn't even listen to it until a day or two after hearing about the Pack, a group of former TV stars turned career criminals, escape from Riker's Island Prison.

It was the same group Jackal and Hyena belonged to, as well as Mr. Xanatos's lady friend, Fox. Feeling confused and a bit angry, Derek cautiously but intently confronted his boss and his television star lover about what she and his sister had said to each other on the tape recording, unsure of what to think. Fox admitted to just messing with Elisa and telling her what she wanted to hear, and Fox always had something of a rebelliousness to authority figures since she was a kid who only wanted to have fun, though the part of only Fox knowing Mr. Xanatos was the boss and creator of the Pack was entirely true.

Because Fox had not been in her right mind when the Pack went rogue and fought the gargoyles as a publicity stunt and got caught up in the thrill and excitement, as well as stupidly taking a swimsuit model hostage, Fox chose to serve her sentence in jail and pay her debt to society so she could be with the man she loved and start with a clean slate by severing all ties with her former colleagues.

Feeling satisfied with Fox's answer, Derek asked no more questions but just did his job to the best of his ability and continued to impress Xanatos with his determination and resourcefulness.

Yet, Derek thought he had lost it all in one night as he took a bullet for Mr. Xanatos, or rather what he thought was a tranquilizer dart shot by one of Xanatos' own science employees from a genetic research lab called Gen-U-Tech, the creepy and obvious would be brother of Dr. Frankenstein Dr. Anton Sevarius.

Although eccentric, as Mr. Xanatos called the geneticist, Dr. Sevarius had an incredibly brilliant mind for genetic engineering and research and felt he could be beneficial for humanity and gargoyles alike. But when it was revealed Sevarius was using human test subjects to create gargoyle like creatures, Xanatos decided to have the project shut down and have a cure made for the mutated test subjects, but Sevarius wouldn't hear of it.

The dart had been filled with the mutagenic formula instead of anesthesia, and Derek began to gradually and very painfully transform into a monster, one he did not want his sister to see. Not until he was cured and human again, which Sevarius had been in the process of making until that blasted Goliath burst into the lab for no apparent reason and killed Sevarius by kicking him into the tank of electric eels.

His chance to be human again yanked out from his grasp in an instant and gone forever.

As he and his fellow mutates learned to use their new wings, again those damn gargoyles showed up at the castle and Derek seized his chance for revenge, certain Goliath was just as responsible for his current condition as Sevarius was.

Though Derek got the upper hand when he unleashed a powerful electric surge upon the mighty gargoyle, their fist fight was halted by the unexpected arrival of Elisa, holding her gun to him and commanding him to step away from Goliath, momentarily angered by her defense of the guilty purple beast and denied his chance for revenge.

Derek was a bit surprised and at the same time relieved Elisa did not even recognize the new winged monster standing before her as her own brother. Taking advantage of her ignorance he called himself Talon, briefly glancing at the ones growing on his now inhuman bestial hands.

But the deception did not last long as he crossed his heart in a promise gesture he and Elisa had always done since they were kids, simply out of habit. The wide shocked look in her eyes was exactly as he had feared; it was all he could do to hide behind his new wings as a shield futile though it was.

Again she blamed Xanatos, the very man who was trying to help him recover from what was clearly an accident, but Elisa believed Xanatos had always lied to her little brother. This just angered Derek so much, energy sparked and surged from his body as Elisa touched him, stunning her as she fell to the ground. Derek realized a moment too late what he had done; he had only wanted Elisa to stop her continuous lecturing and antagonizing of his boss, not hurt his own sister.

The newly mutated Derek could only scream his grief, shame, and anger to the sky before running away, the feared and shocked look in Elisa's eyes to forever haunt his conscience and his dreams, he was now the monster she saw him as and he was made to be.

Elisa will hate him forever, just as the newly proclaimed Talon hates Goliath for what he did to him. He will never be human again and he can never go home.

****Labyrinth, the Sanctuary, Talon's office, Present day, late February 2000

Talon gave a quiet sigh as he begrudgingly listened to Xanatos, a brooding frown colored his felinoid features. Ever since his _former_ boss showed his true colors, Talon was cautious to near the point of being paranoid with Xanatos and any of his intentions. He always hated admitting when he was wrong to anyone, especially his older sister, but she always had the decency to not rub it in his face, though there was the under tone of I-told-you-so in her voice and facial expressions for a short while after Derek had made a big mistake. But like any member of an unusual family she let it pass in time and was there for her little brother.

Despite Xanatos being a bit more open and honest with his former bodyguard, Talon could still tell from his demeanor that Xanatos prided himself as a suave but cutthroat industrialist in the business world, and beneath that masked a resourceful and cunning trickster any in the Third Race would consider a worthy rival and not one to be underestimated.

"I know it's not your area of expertise, Talon," Xanatos said, "but with everything that's going on in the city, it would be appreciated if any information any of your people overhear is passed along and brought quickly to my attention, whether I'm in person or it's visits from your sister, one of the clan, or even Owen."

Talon's facial fur seemed to bristle a bit as he went over Xanatos's request in his head, as simple as it was he couldn't shake a nagging suspicion that there was more to his former boss's plan than he was telling.

"Let me see if I understand you right, Xanatos," Talon said, not trying to even hide his personal suspicion, "You're going to be throwing a fundraising charity benefit to raise donations for the Renard Foundation, which is supposed to be attended by some of the richest people in the city, and you're asking me to have some of the people I'm supposed to protect to risk their necks for you to keep their ears to the ground about any criminal activity about any of the city's crime organizations or this Obscura drug that's rumored to be going around on the streets."

"I know it's risky, Talon," Xanatos said too casually, "but several guests at this fundraiser we know to be dangerous criminal kingpins with strong connections on the streets. I wouldn't put it past any of them to pull something during this fundraiser, which is why I need your help. No doubt you're aware of the city's gang war going on right now, and there must be plenty of new people arriving into the Labyrinth every day who are greatly affected by it seeking refuge in what's rumored to be the 'safest homeless shelter in the city'. Well it's affecting much of the city's businesses as well, both multi-national corporations such as Xanatos Enterprises to small local businesses like the dying mom and pop stores."

"I'm an ex-cop turned flying panther freak living in the sewers, I protect and give a home to other outcasts and misfits who can't protect themselves. I hardly know anything about business functions despite that 'promising career' you gave me a few years ago," Talon said with a slight growl.

"You don't have to, but there may be some people down here who do and that's the advantage we have. There're dirty secrets whispered in the seediest back alleys of the city no one in the underworld wants overheard, and homeless people are always overlooked or ignored because it's assumed they're too stupid or naïve to understand what's going on but we know better. What someone like Brando or Tony Dracon doesn't know is that someone like me has other kinds of reliable sources besides ones of internal business affairs and intelligence gathering."

Talon glared at his former employer with a strong hint of insult and begrudging as he growled, "I was your bodyguard, Xanatos, I'm not your spy. Until Dr. Goldblum cures me and the others I can't even show my face in public and can only go out at night. Why don't you ask the gargoyles to help you? After all, they're living under your palace roof."

"They already are, in their own way, but they have different priorities that happen to coincide with some of my interests. I know you have few reasons to trust me, Talon, but this is in both of our interests. I have reason to believe that it's all connected and somehow Thailog may be behind it since he took over Nightstone from Demona."

Talon's frown deepened and his brow furrowed further as he contemplated what Xanatos had said. He finally gave a deep rumbling sigh of resentment and conceded to Xanatos' request.

"Fine, Xanatos, I'll play along and see what I can do," Talon said with a growl, "But if anything dangerous happens to any of my charges" The panther mutate held up a razor sharp clawed finger to the dark haired industrialist's face right in his line of sight, but Xanatos continued to stand with confident arrogance and didn't even flinch "I will personally hold you responsible, and don't expect money to solve everything because people down here expect more than just reimbursement. I also want to know what this is all really about, because I don't like being kept in the dark and I know there's more to this than what you're telling me."

"For now it's all only on a need to know basis, but I can tell you yes, it's supposed to be a trap as well as a fundraising benefit for the Labyrinth. But the trap is for those who mean to do deception towards my company and the city. But if you're worried I'm not on the up and up, Talon, if it puts your mind at ease Captain Chavez is going to be there, too, if you knowing someone you once trusted will be there to 'keep an eye on me.'"

The Labyrinth Clan leader gave Xanatos another hard glare as he began to escort the powerful businessman out of his office and to the entrance above ground, passing a disgruntled young man sweeping up a corner of the Crossroads area. Xanatos eyed AJ with a fleeting curiosity while he looked at the two older men with clear rebellious resentment.

"A big job for just one person, isn't it?" Xanatos quipped with a bit of humor, though it passed over Talon as he remain stern faced.

"AJ is doing community service for thieving crimes," the black furred panther mutate said with a hard look to Xanatos, "We're not as backwater and anarchic as most people would think down here, even in the Labyrinth we have rules."

Xanatos just quirked an eyebrow, he never doubted that but let the subject pass.

"Anyway," he continued, "anything you can find out, even if it's just rumor I want to know about immediately."

"Yeah, yeah," Talon groaned, "keep my ears to the ground about any criminal threats to your party at the museum."

As the two older males left the Crossroads AJ watched them with a resentful glare, but it quickly became a sinister smile as a thought came to his scheming mind. Even on the dirty backstreets of New York's seediest neighborhoods everyone knew who David Xanatos was, a man so stinking rich he could buy a country's monarchy or over look a newly printed 100 dollar bill on the side walk of 5th Avenue as most people over look a dirty penny. What the rich guy was doing down here in this crap pile and hanging out with the panther man AJ did not know, nor would he usually care but he did know Xanatos' company owned the so-called homeless foundation that runs this place.

How awesome would it be to get his hands on even a quarter million of the rich guy's deep pocket mulla, but even better it would be so bitchin' to just have a chance to get a sense of payback from one of the high class rich snobbish bastards who he blamed for the death of his late mother.

This lead to thoughts of his current predicament, of how those in a better position than him always had to tell him what to do or thought they knew better than he did, a stupid little boy for them to exploit. His time in foster care shaped his views of human nature as his negligent guardians made him and his foster mates perform slave labor work or overlooked the kids ruckus fighting about who was in charge of their little group. He got thrown to the wolves several times until he learned he had to find another to be a sacrificial lamp if he wanted to keep his skin, and he finally understood if he wanted something he had to take it because no one was going to get it for him. Out on the streets he made some friends he knew he could count on for a time when there was a job too big for one person, and at least a sense of fun came from their crime spree for a time. But even his street buds knew and understood it was every man for himself, especially when it came to being busted by the police. The damn police, who always ruined everything and never understood how hard the gritty streets really were and always just wanted to put AJ and his street buds down with their dominating authority.

Just like Talon was doing to him now.

Well, no more, AJ has had it up past his head with the slave work he had done for the past three days forced upon him by the panther man. It wasn't like he was hurting anybody or had stolen a lot of the money, he just needed enough to pay back Baby Face Frankie and he was almost half way through. Damn it, it was not like he could just go to a bank and make a withdrawal from a personal account like most people.

As much as AJ tried to refocus on finishing cleaning the gravel and stone shards from the ground, the thought had galvanized itself into his mind and sustained him with determination and a growing sense of renewed need for revenge and self satisfaction. Five minutes later, he made his choice. He threw the broom down with a hard wooden clank and began speed walking his way through one of the side tunnels of the Crossroads, passing a few people who looked at him with confusion and curiosity, but he completely ignored them as though none of them even existed.

Had either of his supervisors, Thug or Claw, been awake at that moment they would have stopped him before he even took five steps, but his evening supervisor was the wino Al who just tried to step in front of AJ with an out stretched hand to stop the younger man and tell him to get back to work unless he wanted to get into more trouble with Talon. But AJ just shoved hard at the old man to get him out of his way, but the old wino was more tenacious that AJ thought as the old man grabbed his upper arm to stop the younger man from leaving too soon. Without a second thought AJ just punched the old man hard enough to make him dizzy and fall to the ground with a hard bodily thump.

By the time Al recovered and was able to stand up again as his head cleared from a swimming dizziness, AJ had ran down a known side tunnel and was out of sight.

Al knew the Boss Cat was not going to like this.

AJ had run down a dark tunnel he had come to know down here and kept running until he found a man hole he could climb to. He peeked through the open hole in the street and saw he was not far from a part of the city he had known for a long time.

He didn't even bother to replace the manhole cover as he ran down the dark and deserted city street, and didn't even look back.


	5. Chapter 5

It was not too long before Talon had returned to find an apprehensive Al waiting for him, a look of shame making him appear older than he actually was.

Talon looked at his loyal supporter with concern and curiosity as he asked, "What is it, Al, what's wrong?"

Al could only look away in shame from Talon as he nervously rubbed his hands as he stuttered, "I'm sorry, Boss Cat, I tried to stop him, but the kid he. . ."

Talon took a closer look around the Crossroads, concern and comprehension grew as he gave a growl and sigh of frustration. He then noticed the bruise forming on Al's face, a purple and blue blotch shaped like a fist on the old man's cheek to his fragile jaw line. The former police pilot just placed a large hand gently on his friend's shoulder in support and forgiveness as he gently said,

"I know you tried, Al, and no one can say we didn't try our best with him, but it looks like he made his choice and doesn't really want to be here. However, we'll keep an eye out for him if just to show we care enough he can come back, no matter how ungrateful a jerk he is."

Al only nodded meekly, relieved Talon did not blame him though still ashamed of letting AJ get away.

It was then at the next moment when Talon saw Delilah bringing back a frightened looking Hollywood in her arms, the pale peach gargoyle trembled from the tips of his wing talons to his tail tip and mumbled incoherently.

"Hey, Delilah, what're you and Hollywood doing back so early?" Talon asked with mild surprise, "I wasn't expecting any of you back till Hudson brought you and your brothers back before sunrise."

"The lesson was going very well, Talon," Delilah answered, "Unfortunately, Hollywood got frightened by a dead raccoon in Central Park."

Her black furred leader gave a raised brow in confusion.

"Why? You've seen dead animals before, Hollywood. Heck, you've even helped skin and cook rats and occasional pigeons with Meredith before the menu greatly improved down here."

Hollywood just gave Talon a scared little kid look as Delilah answered, "Not like this. The raccoon's skin and fur were completely gone, but there was no sign of it being cut with a knife and there wasn't any sign of blood either. The poor creature's fur had been removed like a piece of clothing, in a way we don't know about."

Talon only became further confused, yet a tingle went down his spine to make even his large wings shiver with apprehension. Something about this whole situation did not sit right with him and he began to understand Hollywood's scare in the park.

He gave Hollywood a pitied look as he heard the peach gargoyle mumble sadly, "I never eat meat again, I no want to hurt little animals, I not monster like monster hurt raccoon."

Talon shook his head in further pity, thinking of a dozen reasons why that was a bad idea given the kind of diet gargoyles and mutates required for their respective metabolisms. However, that was a lesson best taught at another time, for now he told Delilah to take her brother to the Sanctuary until he calmed down.

The panther mutate formerly known as Derek Maza began to muse about his position as thoughts of leadership passed through his mind, on occasion he had questioned or second guessed about if he was doing the right thing or if he came off as abusing his power. Being a leader often meant having to make difficult decisions for the wellbeing of those less fortunate and it always meant great self sacrifice, unlike the leadership style of Fang who clearly believed in the 'strong rules the weak', a highly misguided concept which often showed a weakness in character. A rebelliousness to authority was also nothing new to Talon as his father and older sister often told of experiences of it from people who felt their rights were being violated or oppressed and fearful of being dominated and having their independence taken away, as though they were being treated as less than human. It even occurred enough in the Labyrinth until Talon or one of his other supporters were able to use reason and give choices to would be dissidents, most often of the choice of to leave willingly and be on their own or stay and make the best of it. Anyone rarely left the Labyrinth to go back to difficulties and despair in the city above, but most often those who did came back wanting a safe haven and a chance at a real home and purpose.

It was evident AJ had such an attitude towards any form of authority, but it could make him callous and reckless. Talon knew he could not change the street punk or anyone similar to him over night, but he liked to think and hope he could try over time.

In time Talon could only hope he could help AJ and those like him see there were more benefits and far more progress to being united as a community than there was at always going at something alone.

For a long while he allowed his mind to wander on his difficult troubles just as he wandered about parts of the Labyrinth away from the Crossroads to the mutates' living area of the Sanctuary. He did not come out of his musing until he saw the elder of his clan's allies, Hudson of the Manhattan Clan, return with the rest of the clones, Burbank, Brentwood, and Malibu.

"Hey, Hudson," Talon greeted to the brownish tan Scottish elder, "I heard about Hollywood's scare, I only hope the rest of you were on your best behavior."

The last three clones nodded their heads and Malibu said with pride, "I find raccoon, a living one. We try to look for what hurt and kill other one but didn't find it. Professor Hudson say that not bad thing and tracking take a lot of practice. I practice to be good tracker and help protect Labyrinth better."

Talon gave a proud smile to his young gargoyle charge as Hudson proclaimed, "Aye, they did very well despite their rookery brother's ghastly fright, and the young Malibu here shows great promise and I believed he'll be a good tracker for yer clan, Talon. Though tonight's lesson be done for now, I still have much to teach them."

Talon told the gargoyles they could go join Hollywood and Delilah in the Sanctuary, but Malibu stayed being while his two rookery brothers departed to then ask his leader, "Where AJ? Is he done with more community service now? I want to tell him about tracking lesson and he said me and him play fuse ball in Game Room."

Talon could only give a deep frown and gently put a hand on Malibu's wiry muscular shoulder as he said with sympathy and disappointment,

"I'm sorry, Malibu, but I just found out from Al that he ran away a short while ago. I don't know where he is or if he'll even come back?"

"What!?" Malibu shouted, his eyes glowed bright crimson for a moment, "Why he not here? Why he go away? I thought he my friend?"

"Calm yourself, Lad," Hudson tried to reassure the younger clone of Brooklyn, "What this be about now, and who is AJ?"

"Just another troubled hooligan from Topside, one of many your clan brought to me that's been badly effect by this gang war above I keep hearing about."

"He my friend," Malibu said with lingering hurt, "He did bad thing and stole money from Labyrinth humans me and brothers protect and leader Talon make him do chores as punishment so he won't do it again. AJ said he do it so he could survive because he be alone all the time and you can't count on anybody but yourself, but he not be alone any more, he have me and leader Talon and friend Lisa and brothers as friends and not need to steal money from other humans. He almost always mad at something and say people bad, and you have to be bad to them before they be bad to you. I know that true and not true, some people are bad and some people are good like down here and good people are better than bad people and we protect good people and be good people. When AJ not mad we talk about fun things like games and play games, and watch movies, and he talk about motorcycles and fast cars and sometimes babes. I only not like when he talks about breaking rules and saying leader Talon a bad leader and control freak, and I not like when he talk about wanting a smoke and bad drugs or wanting to be like prisoner Fang because he heard prisoner Fang knew how to have fun and be a bad butt."

Talon tried to hold back a snicker while Hudson only raised a browridge.

"I think he means 'bad ass,'" Talon explained, "But since I washed Brentwood's mouth out with soap and water for even daring to say the F word to me during an attempt to resist doing chores the other clones don't even like hearing bad grown up words, especially Malibu after he tasted a whole bar of bath soap on a dare to hold it in his beak."

Hudson tried to hold back his own snicker as Malibu winced from remembering that embarrassing experience.

"Anyway," Talon continued more stoically, "AJ is a drug addict and an amoral con artist to nearly being sociopathic. Sometimes he seems like more trouble than he's worth but I've dealt with such people before down here."

"Aye, he sounds like a deeply troubled scoundrel, right enough, and I've experience enough with such youngsters both within me own clan and with human rascals."

"We gotta find him," Malibu interjected, "We gotta find my friend and bring him home. Professor Hudson teach us tracking now and I go tracking and bring AJ home."

As Malibu began to dash off in a random direction, Talon called after him,

"Wait, Malibu, I don't want you running off on some wild goose chase looking for AJ. As much as I would rather not have to deal with his rotten attitude again, I too would want him to come back and be safe but it has to be his choice. Besides, he hasn't been gone that long and is probably just mad at his punishment and needs some time to think, though it's still no excuse for running away. Give him a little time to cool down and then we'll go look for him."

"Your leader be right, Malibu," Hudson said with a fatherly patience, "Besides, tonight be only the first lesson of tracking and I still have must to teach ye. Go and tell th' others I'll be back ta take ye all out again same time next week."

Malibu's wings drooped a bit as he frowned in disappointment to his leader and mentor, but nodded obediently and went off to join the others.

Talon smiled after the lime green gargoyle and turned back to Hudson as he said, "They're 'growing up' so fast and I'm proud of all of them, especially Malibu's determination to protect everyone he cares about."

"Aye, Talon," Hudson said grimly, "But ye may have ta find this wayward boy sooner rather than later."

Talon gave Hudson a confused look, not liking this change in tone or the disturbance given off from Hudson's presence.

"What do you mean, Hudson?"

"I mean there may be trouble a brewin'."

"I know, all that trouble and misery from the gang war Topside."

"There be more to this than the warring gangs of bandits hitherto above, Talon, there's been other strange devilry abouts such as Brooklyn's encounter with a scourge of vampires not yet a fortnight ago."

"Vampires?" Talon almost laughed, "Has your clan been watching too many Dracula movies lately?"

"I be not jesting here, Talon, they be as real as you or I and are more dangerous than any street brigand either clan has faced. Lexington has also told of encountering another strange being, a dangerous Halfling calling herself Nightshade and she has the most unearthly of powers even for any other Halfling of the Unseelie Court. There also be the matter of Thailog and his legion of minions at his command at Nightstone, and tonight after having found the skinned raccoon I kept feelin' in me old bones as though something else, something otherworldly, be watchin' from the shadows."

Although Talon feigned skepticism, that same tingle from earlier went down his spine and made his wings shiver a bit.

"So more than the usual weirdness going on," he finally said, "Sounds like it could become another Unseelie invasion thing, and they were enough trouble when they almost scared us off and tried to destroy our home which is why we're so secretive down here."

"Almost, but too early to tell as of yet," Hudson agreed, "Right now the best advantage ye have is almost none o' 'em know of the Labyrinth and it be best for it to stay that way. Great danger may befall your home and those under your protection if they do learn of its existence and this AJ will tragically become lost."

"I have heard of some rumors of other homeless people disappearing off the streets, most often friends or others that people from down here knew, but I figured they were coming here and brought old friends to live with them. Maybe there's more to it, and no one has gone to the police about it for obvious reasons as you can see."

Hudson gave a nod of pity as he continued,

"Still, Talon, lad, I say ye find AJ soon for he may be a troublesome miscreant but he'd best be safest down here with ye and yer clan, before danger befalls him or he brings it ta ye should he be unwittingly followed."

The mutate and the gargoyle elder parted with a warrior's forearm clasp as Hudson departed the Labyrinth for his home at Castle Wyvern high above.

Again Talon found himself musing about his difficulties, and much of it about past mistakes and misconceptions. In some weird and slightly disturbing way, Talon could almost relate to AJ and his rebelliousness.

****The Eyrie Building, 1995

These last several weeks had been hell for Talon; the painful transformation into a winged monster and the loss of his very humanity had forced him to go to places he never thought of going before and made him do things he never thought he would have to do.

But worst of all, he had lost everything; not just his humanity, but also his dignity, his life, his family, and the love of his life.

It was all a blur after those first moments after fleeing from the Eyrie Building and Elisa, he let the wind on his new wings take him wherever the air currents carried him to just loose himself and be free of the pain which threatened to overwhelm his nearly fractured mind and raging emotional turmoil like a tsunami out of the blue void, but one thought kept persisting in the back of his subconscious; he had to see Nichole.

How he got to her apartment window he did not know, he just knew he suddenly found himself outside of her window looking in after a long nearly soul freeing flight though the Manhattan sky, away and above the troubles of the world and all its unforgiving evils, but it was still an excruciatingly lonely experience.

He stared inside her window for long agonizing minutes, just watching her going about a deceivingly normal routine of eating a late night microwavable dinner and reading a book before getting ready to turn in for the night.

The new mutate could barely take any more of the peaceful scene before him, mundane though it was, and set to flying away again as he gave a moaning growl of frustration and self loathing.

But his attempt at departure did not go unnoticed.

Having heard a scratching sound from something bigger than a pigeon from outside her apartment window, Nichole glimpsed outside in curiosity and nervousness to see the most bizarre and frightening creature she never imagined even from her wildest dreams, a giant bat winged black cat creature.

The moment between them was frozen for but a nanosecond before Nichole gave a loud screech in pure fright to stumble back out of her living room chair and knock her folding table and its food contents to the floor as she kicked and writhed about to gain a sense of composure. She threw whatever loose contents she could find at her window as she struggled to get to her legs as she saw the creature reach for her from behind the glass and seemingly call her name with a barely audible growling voice.

The scene stretched out and played into her mind like a reel from an old 1950s monster movie as she finally struggled to reach for a side table and pulled from its drawer a hand gun given to her by her boyfriend Derek for practicing at a police shooting range from several of their later dates.

Several shots were fired off before the creature finally disappeared from her window, and Nichole collapsed against her wall in adrenaline surged euphoria as she breathed heavily, and clasped one hand to her chest and rapidly beating heart and her loosely held gun in the other.

Talon gave a sorrowful cry into the night as he flew away from Nichole's apartment building and heavy despairing tears flowed from his inhuman eyes to streak his fur covered face. His girlfriend's reaction to his monstrous appearance was as he had feared, just like with Elisa.

He knew Nichole's rejection was evident in all he had lost and the final nail in the coffin.

Talon became all but consumed by grief and self loathing as days blurred together into weeks as he tried to survive on his own, searching for some sentiment of sanctuary during the day and searching for food during the night. It took much self control to keep everything from losing his sanity as he was forced to live in squalor, hiding out in dark abandoned back alleys to search for discarded scraps of food in repulsive dumpsters and trash cans to every now and then give a poor homeless bum a fright as they ran at the very sight of him. He was extremely fortunate to evade encountering any of his former beat police colleagues as they rarely believed the claimed sights told by their homeless informants or he had fled before they came to investigate the said sighting.

As the weeks past, his grief gradually became a near consuming hatred for the ones who had robbed him of his very humanity, but since one was dead his hate became set on the other one responsible and who still lived, that damn gargoyle Goliath.

One day as he thought of this, Talon finally decided he had had enough of his pathetic attempt at survival on the streets of Manhattan and needed to return to the one person who could help him.

After nearly a month of barely surviving the harshness of street life, Talon began to feel a small semblance of dignity and a small sense of his lost humanity again as his old boss Xanatos happily welcomed him back to Castle Wyvern and gave him real homemade food, a real bed to sleep in and a place to shower as his now smoother and sleeker glossy black fur had been covered and matted with dirt, grime, and assorted refuse from living in garbage. He was even given new clothes in the form of a blue and green tunic with shoulder guards of an experimental Kevlar like armor, as it had become more and more humiliating to only wear a torn piece of denim jeans that looked like a Tarzan loincloth.

In a few following short days he was rejoined by the three other surviving mutates; the lioness like Maggie Reed, a country girl from Ohio with big dreams of becoming a Broadway actress, the tiger like Claw, a strong silent type who was either another homeless victim or a former employee from Gen-U-Tech, and the cougar like Fang, a loud mouth wise ass whom Talon did not like off the bat but hoped could be reformed in some way.

As the weeks unfolded, life improved slightly as Talon and his fellow former humans pulled together to cope with their situation, protecting the castle by night and doing a few covert favors for Xanatos' business interests in exchange for a safe refuge to stay during the day and the promise of an eventual cure. For Talon, it was as close to having his old job back as it got, but he was not completely content as all he wanted was for Goliath to pay for taking his only chance at being human again away forever, a growing obsession that nearly consumed him.

Finally one night his chance for revenge came unexpectedly, Goliath had appeared at the castle, with Elisa nonetheless much to his chagrin. As the unproclaimed leader of the mutates, Talon had Claw and Fang attack the gargoyle beast on sight before joining the fight himself, ready for retribution but the scuffle was quickly broken up by Elisa and Maggie. Talon did not hide his frustration and anger at Elisa's interference and denying his chance at revenge at his gargoyle enemy, finally understanding the monster had somehow and for some perverted reason had corrupted his own sister against him, there was something going on between the monster and his sister which he saw in their glances to each other after having first met the gargoyles in person and now his suspicions only grew. He did not want to fight his own sister, but he wanted more than anything to have revenge if he could not regain his humanity.

However, Maggie persuaded him otherwise as she really hated all the fighting as she saw it as pointless, clearly wanting to keep Talon from doing something he would most likely regret later, which Xanatos agreed with as he suddenly appeared unexpectedly. He said it was unnecessary because Goliath and Elisa were always welcomed to the castle though it was understandable Talon was trying to protect their home.

Xanatos vouched for Elisa and Goliath as not being the enemy, to which again Elisa irritatingly shouted Xanatos was their mutual enemy as he was the one responsible for the mutates condition. However, Maggie, wonderful gentle Maggie, reasoned their benefactor was their only chance for a cure since Sevarius was dead.

But Elisa foolishly insisted no one was dead, despite the evidence Talon had seen with his own eyes, yet Elisa says Xanatos deceived him. But Talon wouldn't hear any of it, because clearly the monster was the one who had deceived his own sister, snowed her over with pitiful jargon and rhetoric of gargoyle innocence.

However, it piqued Maggie's interest wondering if maybe it was true, and if Sevarius was still somehow alive Talon was be certain he won't be for long.

Little did the panther mutate suspect it would all spiral into shocking revelations in a surreal chain of events; Sevarius indeed still alive and somehow different from how Talon last saw him when he found the insane scientist with Goliath and even more surprisingly Elisa with them in the old underground complex; another adrenaline powered fist fight with Goliath and almost killing the gargoyle in cold blood; Sevarius claiming to have finally created the possible cure the mutates have longed for; but the most shocking revelation of all was the possibility of Elisa and Goliath being right the whole time when Xanatos unexpectedly arrived with a small force of Steel Clan robots and saved Sevarius.

This last revelation, the possibility of the 'cure' actually being poison, Xanatos saying 'Sevarius was the scientist, he was just the experiment', but mostly the thought of loosing Maggie to the 'cure' were what finally brought the inner Derek Maza to the surface from the persona of Talon to come to his senses and stop allowing his anger to control him and cloud his judgment.

He had never felt so ashamed and humiliated in his life, not even after his transformation but Elisa did not hold it against him, nor did his fellow mutates or even Goliath who even surprisingly offered the mutates a place in his clan as members, stating Elisa was already part of his clan and that made them all family.

Family, the notion touched something inside the former human.

He gratefully declined Goliath's offer, but resolved for the mutates to be a new clan and family. Eventually he told Elisa he was sorry for everything and only wanted to see their parents again, finally let them know what had happened to him.

Despite all he had gone through, Elisa was right about one thing; he may have changed on the outside but he was still Derek on the inside and it meant deep down he was still in some way a police officer, a protector of the weak.

Never again will he only put he is own personal needs before the wellbeing of those around him, especially his own friends and family.

****Unknown abandoned back alley

AJ walked at a brisk but casual pace as he left behind an open manhole cover, not even bothering to put it back into place and just thought of getting away from that portal to hell.

He did not feel liberated until he begin to walk through more familiar backstreets, an arrogant smile coming to his chiseled face as he then spotted the best thing he had seen in weeks.

"Yo, AJ," another even more scruffy and unkempt street hood waved to him as AJ came up to him and gave his old street bud a fist bump and hard clasp of dirtied hands.

"Good to see ya, Travis," AJ said, "What've you and the guys been up to?"

Travis just sat on a crumbling pile of bricks and debris as he gave AJ a self indulgent smirk as he looked his old friend over with a critical eye, bringing a cigarette to his lips as he took a deep puff. Another of the street group offered AJ one from his own pack and the ponytailed youth accepted one with casual ease as though nothing had changed, yet he felt a sense of satisfied relief at finally having the smoke he so desperately craved and had been denied for weeks.

"First tell us where've you been, Dude?" Travis questioned, "We not see you for weeks and all o' a sudden here's you are, lookin' likes youse been livin' it high."

"Not as high as you think," AJ grumbled begrudgingly.

"Yeah, dog, where'd ya disappears to?" asked another of the group called Greaser, "You've been missin' out on some weirdin' out but bitchin' stuff happenins on the street."

"Really, like what, Dudes?" AJ inquired, his curiosity piqued.

"Like this rad new dope that's goin' around call 'Scura or somethin'," a degenerate called Buster said, "Word on the street is it's not only the best but it gives ya these weird abilities, like psycho powers or other some such thing like from comic books or some such shit."

"It's psychic, you idiot, not psycho, that means a crazy person like in that movie, the other is reading minds or seein' the future or some such crap," Travis growled to Buster, who gave his so-called leader a dirty look.

"Sounds awesome, guys," AJ said, "But totally screwed up, how'd you know if it's true or just some rumor people are shittin' out? Everybody knows the streets are fulla crazies and wiener hobos talkin' to the voices in their heads and wantin' attention from everybody else, and gangs trashin' each other just to take out the weak and stupid who'll believe anything."

Travis just gave a smirk as he looked at Greaser and ordered, "Show him."

"Show me what?" AJ questioned with a raised eyebrow as Greaser gave a smug smile and just placed a grimy hand upon a nearby wall.

At first nothing happened for a microsecond, but then Greaser's hand suddenly seemed to secrete a slick oily substance as he slipped his hand across the rotten wall, the substance dissolved and ate through the brick like a powerful hydrochloric acid with a low hiss and evaporating wispy tendrils. AJ could only stare on in wide eyed disbelief and dumbfounded as he dropped his still wisping cigarette to the ground, words clearly escaped him.

"Pretty bitchin', right?" Greaser said as he crossed his wiry muscular arms in self overconfidence, "I had a whole package earlier this week, but it's gettin' pretty low and I'm gonna need more. The only problem is it's freakin' expensive and it'll take more than a few muggings of old ladies' purses and cash register money to pay for even half of it."

AJ could only scoff a bit as he said, "C'mon, surely it should be easy it get that kinda mulla with that awesome ability, Greaser, you should be able to hit as many gas stations or stores as you want, hell maybe even a national bank with high security couldn't stop you."

The group of street punks frowned as they looked at each other, waiting to see who would speak first.

Travis finally said, "Yeah, he could, AJ, but the biggest problem right now is we've been forced to pay back Radar with the money we can get, and he's got a ton o' the stuff. So until we've paid him back in full for losin' his so-called precious 'merchandise' we're sunk. It's gonna take a crap load o' money to pay that bastard back and he won't give nothin' to us 'til he gets his money."

"And I still owe that sonovabitch Nielson a butch o' money, too," AJ groaned, "So we're all in the same boat. So what're we gonna do, guys? There's gotta be a quick way to get cash and out o' the thumbs of those pricks, and I don't wanna owe nobody nothin'."

"You said it, dude," Buster agreed, "But it ain't gonna be easy, the bigger gangs are seriously dukin' it out and they're playin' for keeps. Makes it harder for guys like us to just get by and get a decent buck or just hang out. There's no safe places to hide out no more."

AJ gave a bit of a smirk as he said, "I know a place, but it might be fulla too much weirdness and it'll take some gettin' used to but at least we could just hang out like old times."

Travis gave a snort as he said, "Nice try, AJ, but no place is outta the know with Radar, ya know he's gots spies everywhere and he says he's gots this ability to see what youse sees and he sees all, that's why he's always been called Radar. If we try to backs out on him, ya know he'll screw us over real goods. Our only choice is to pay him back and gets a big stash o' his 'Scura."

AJ could only frown at his friend's words, knowing well they were all too true. Then another thought came to him as he remembered something from earlier that day.

"I might know a way to solve all our problems," he said with a smile, "That hidden place I know is owned by that rich dude, Xanatos, and I overheard him talkin' about throwin' a party at a museum, and you can bet your ass a bunch o' the richest and phoniest snobs and higher ups in the city'll be there. We hit them quick and hard and we'd be set for life."

"That's a good idea, AJ, dog," Travis said with a less than thrilled smile, "But there's like a million museums in this city, and no doubt security at that rich man's party will be tight. Still, it would be to'ally bitchin' to stick it to the mindless and oppressive snot bags that think they own this city. Even on the streets, everybody knows who Xanatos is, and surly he could spare a few bucks for the needy like us."

"Yeah," the others agreed with excitement.

"The only thing we need to do is find out when this bash is and at which museum," Travis said thoughtfully.

"I got that covered," Buster said as he lifted out an old piece of newspaper from a trash bin, browned and heavily damp from wasted and dirty water or coffee and covered in smudges to make most of the printing nearly unreadable.

"Well, that's convenient," Travis said sarcastically.

"People are always throwin' all kinds o' shit away, it amazing sometimes what you find," Buster said.

It was a business section of one of New York City's biggest newspapers, the biggest article title in bold print said _CEO DAVID XANATOS TO HOST CHARITY EVENT_. A sub title below indicated the rich man would be showcasing pieces of his prized collection of rarities, including the priceless Coyote Diamond.

"Awman, this is bitchin'," Greaser said with growing excitement, "I don't know what the Coyote Diamond is, but I heards it's supposed to be worth millions."

"Who cares, idiot," Travis said, "If we snag it along with any loot we grab, fine, I just wanna get back at some o' those rich bastards and outta Radar's grip, we're not his bitches."

The others agreed as AJ said, "From what I can make out Xanatos' shindig is tomorrow night at the Museum of the City of New York. Damn, there's another problem."

"What?"

"Not only are there gonna be rich people there, I think this says he's gettin' donations from police departments, which means cops bein' there."

His friends exchanged more profanities, but Travis just smiled sneakily as he said, "No prob, AJ. It just means we're gonna need some help. Let's go find some more o' our old buds and see if they'd like to crash the party with us. I'm sure they'll want in, and somebody's gotta know about where to get some serious firepower, 'cause we're gonna need it."

The filthy piece of newspaper got tossed aside as the piece of rubbish it was once again as the four street friends walked off together in excited planning, never noticing someone watching from the shadows of a side alley nearby.

The strangely shaped silhouette then made its way down an underground tunnel to tell Talon what he had seen.

To Be Continued. . .


End file.
